Northern Flicker

This painting is from a photograph Sue took in Chase B.C. Sue is very generous with her artful photographs and sends me ones she knows I will enjoy. I just wish I had more painting time. I hadn't really painted a bird close up before, but with such a good photograph, the challenge seemed possible. Another photograph on the calendar Sue made for me was a great reference (March).

Northern Flicker

Oil on Board 12" x 16"

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Early Morning Flower Series #31 and #32

Early Morning Flower Painting #31

Oil on Board 6" x 6"

I am still in Sicamous and haven't had a chance to paint, so happily can post some of my flower painting series. It is interesting to see my colour choices on each day when they are together in a post like this. I try to challenge myself with something different in each one, changing up flowers, colour, design, thickness etc.

Early Morning Flower Painting #32

Oil on Board 6" x 6"

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It is much easier to get out of bed early in the morning to start a painting before I head to work....much harder to quit before I am mentally or physically done. It is amazing how physical painting is. I stand when I paint and move back and forth...kind of like a mini early morning workout, a painting tai chi!

The Summer Office

The Summer Office - a gift

Oil on Board 13" x 10 1/2"

This painting is of Bruce sitting in his boat answering emails and phone calls. The water was peaceful after water skiing with Bruce, Brent and Sterling (aka "big head boys") last summer. Sterling snapped this picture with his phone for me from his deck. I loved everything about the picture and wanted to capture the still water, the reflections, the slant of the boat, Bruce, Sterling's dock and Sicamous in the distance. It is wonderful painting a scene you know so well. It brings back the event, people, sights and sounds, heartwarming really.

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Early Morning Flower Series #29 and #30

Early Morning Painting #29

Oil on Board 6" x 6"

I think because of the oil shine, this painting came out so muted. It is a very soft looking painting. There are bits of bright orange that doesn't show well in the photograph, especially on the flower tips.

Early Morning Painting #30

Oil on Board 6" x 6"

You can just see how much fun I had with this one! It was after a rare full night's sleep, a celebration with paint. This one has very thick paint on it and screams fun!

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From Spain to Sicamous

I had set this blog with paintings to post while I was away, but something did not work so I will keep posting the work I had set up. I will not have new painting work for awhile, but will continue posting my flower painting series!

This is a picture of Costa Brava in Spain. We were basking in warm weather, with a great group of people at a B & B trying to deal with the rapidly rising water in Sicamous, B.C. on Mara Lake as our cabin was starting to flood. We went from this view of Costa Brava Spain:

To this:

My husband Gord and I had finally gone on a long awaited celebratory holiday in Spain. The water levels were in the normal range for Sicamous so everything was a go. What we did not bank on was extreme rain and therefore Mara Lake rose to flooding levels in record time. Gord's Mom (Noreen) and Tom were here for a couple weeks of holiday time only to be stressed by the very quickly rising lake level. The normal procedure and protective aquadam was not put in quick enough or properly by the company hired to do this and Noreen and Tom suffered the stress of not being able to keep back the rising water.

We were up for 26 hours, arrived home in Calgary (from Barcelona) at 1 a.m., went straight to bed to wake up to the phone ringing at 5 a.m. to tell us the water had come in. We put our suitcases back in the car and headed to Sicamous. We were about 45 minutes away from Sicamous to find out the rain had created a mudslide and the highway was closed. We were rerouted, had to take 2 ferries and the normal 5 1/2 hour trip took 19 hours!

Thankfully we had the help of my brother Ken, his wife Marg, Carl, Leslie (Gord's sister), my sister Shannon and Jim to hold the water at bay awaiting our arrival.

We arrived completely exhausted to find the basement filling up with water and a work team had hooked up sump pumps, hoses, wet vacuums etc and were battling the water. The lake peaked 2 days ago and we are now seeing some of the lawn on the side of the house etc. We are so grateful to Noreen, Tom, Len, Gladys, Ken, Marg, Leslie, Carl, Shannon, Jim, Claire, Steve, Colleen, Brian, Jack, and Lynn and for their support and help!!!!

And today's view:

This is a picture of our yard from the road (under water). We are finally seeing some grass and side yard again. The big worry is boats going by and the wake moving our Aquadam. The weather is overcast today and all the boat launches in town are flooded so it should be okay.